


Something About Manny

by Pennin_Ink



Series: Something About Frieda's [3]
Category: Monsters and Other Childish Things, Mrs. Frieda's Halfway Home for Terrible and Freakish Children, The Drunk and The Ugly
Genre: Body Dysphoria, Established Relationship, Estranged parent, M/M, Post-Campaign
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-10
Updated: 2014-12-10
Packaged: 2018-02-28 21:38:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2748020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pennin_Ink/pseuds/Pennin_Ink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The war may be over, but Manny still has some battles to fight. His body is changing, growing ever more demonic as he ages, and with it come the impulses and instincts he's already failed to control. He needs help, and it's time for his mother to provide it.</p>
<p>Thing is, there's only one thing tougher than Mann's training regime.</p>
<p>And that's saying good bye.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something About Manny

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Manda Carney](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Manda+Carney), [Matt Campen](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Matt+Campen).



“Are you sure you wanna do this, dude?” Caleb squinted against the setting sun, looking out at the treeline.

“I have to.” Said Manny.

“I thought you had it covered.”

Manny shook his head. “No, I-I don’t. I mean I’m still changing, and it’s getting worse. I mean _look_ at me.”

He opened his arms and took a step back, putting himself on display. Caleb looked, he didn’t really need much convincing. Manny was taller, maybe still a little on the shrimpy side, but definitely getting up there. He was bigger, too. His wings had gotten too big to strap down without hurting, his ears were longer and came to more of a point, and his horns had grown long enough to poke out through his bangs. It was still a little weird, seeing his eyes pretty much all the time.

“I need help, y’know, getting a grip on all of this. Before I hurt y—someone.”

Caleb frowned at the trees. “What about that book? Doesn’t that help?”

Manny winced. “It’s not enough. It’s for, like, all kinds of demons. I need to learn about, you know, me specifically. I gotta do this, man.”

Caleb sighed. “Yeah.” He said. “Yeah, okay.”

Manny tensed suddenly, his head raised a little, and he took a sharp breath through his nose. “She’s here.”

Caleb didn’t bother trying to see her, Manny’s mom would make an entrance if she wanted to. Instead, he took the opportunity to grab Manny’s face and pull him into a kiss.

Manny went with it, which was pretty cool of him, considering his mom was probably watching them. But no way was Caleb letting him vanish into the wilderness or whatever without one last taste of this. Manny kissed hungry, Manny kissed like he was starving, but also kind of careful and soft, and Caleb was probably a little addicted to it.

“Come back.” Caleb said once they’d broken apart. “As soon as you can, got it babe?”

Manny stared at him, eyes wide and mouth slack.

“What?”

“N-nothing. Just. You never called me that before.”

 Caleb smirked and kissed him again, quick and deep.

 “Listen, dude,” he said, locking his eyes on Manny’s. “I love you. Okay, that’s it. I mean you could grow, like, twelve foot wings and spikes all down your back and, like, scales all over you or some shit and I’d still love you. You know that, right?”

 Manny nodded, a bit too quickly, but hey. They were working on it.

 “And I mean whatever she tells you, or teaches you about, or tries to turn you into, you remember what you got waiting back here. Okay? And you come back to me.”

 “Caleb.” Manny’s voice was kind of shakey. “You’re scaring me a little, dude.”

 Caleb slumped. “Shit, I’m sorry bro. Just…you get all caught up in this demon thing and you look like you wanna run away. And I just,” he looked down at his sneakers. “I don’t wanna lose you.”

 Manny put one hand on Caleb’s shoulder, and Caleb looked up at him.

 “I’m not going anywhere.” Manny said. “I mean, I am, but not permanently. I promise, dude.”

 Manny was the one to kiss him this time. And it was soft, and slow, and a little sad. And when he pulled away his eyes were a little too shiny.

 “I gotta go, man. She’s waiting.”

 Caleb nodded. “Go on, dude. Learn cool demon shit.”

 Manny smiled a little. “Yeah. Okay. Uh, I love you too.”

Caleb grinned and lightly knocked a fist against Manny’s shoulder. “Yeah, I know it dude. Go on, get outta here.”

“Yeah.” Manny said, too casually. “Yeah, okay. Yeah. Uh...”

He darted in to snatch one more kiss, and then ran to the treeline where Mann seemed to materialize out of the shadows to meet him.

* * *

A few weeks later Caleb was lying in bed, listening to some music and pretending there wasn’t a huge, scary hole growing inside him every time he looked at Manny’s shit scattered around the room, when his head got crowded.

** Someone is coming. **

Caleb jumped, yanking his headphones off and sitting up to look around. There was no one there, of course.

_Dude, what the hell?_ He demanded, barely remembering in time to keep it in his head. _I ain’t heard from you in weeks and you can’t even bother with a hello?_

** Hello. Someone is coming. **

_Someone worth dragging your ass back to my reality for?_

**The trip is somewhat less taxing lately. But yes.**

“Manny?” He asked out loud. Shawty didn’t respond, but Caleb was getting kinda used to him going quiet these days.

Another voice did answer, “Afraid not.”

Caleb went to the open window and peered into the night. Mann stood a few feet away, sullen and strong in the darkness. She inclined her head, and Caleb slipped out the window to join her.

“Where is he?” Hey, Shawty wasn’t the only one who could skip the pleasantries.

“He’s safe.” Mann replied.

“That why you came here? This some kind of status update?”

“Not for you.”

Caleb just looked at her, blankfaced.

Mann rolled her eyes and sighed, exasperated. “I’m here on my son’s behalf. He’s concerned about you.”

Caleb frowned. “I just texted the dude, like, two hours ago.”

Mann huffed. “I’m aware. Believe me.”

“Then why?”

Mann pulled back her upper lip, showing off her fangs in a snarl. “He’s unfocused. I can’t teach him if he gets distracted over you every five minutes.”

Caleb blinked. “And you think coming here to check on me would fix it?”

Mann shrugged.

“You could just let him come see me.”

Mann stared at him.

Caleb sighed. “Yeah, I thought not. You do get we’re, like, together right? I mean you do know what that means.”

Mann’s expression didn’t so much as twitch. “Ven.”

“Oh right, yeah.” Caleb said. “So you get that, y’know, this is kinda hard for us. The whole being apart thing? It’s not an ideal situation.”

“There are more important things. He should know that.”

“Yeah he does know that. It don’t make it easy.”

“Then what would you suggest?” Mann snapped.

Caleb shrugged. “Well, bring him by maybe. Instead of keeping him all hidden away. The boy does not handle alone very good. And, y’know lately I don’t either.”

Mann frowned. Frowned more, anyway. “It would be more dangerous than you think. Manny’s instincts are...stronger right now.”

“I can handle it.”

Mann sneered. “You are not my concern.”

“He can handle it, too.”

“You seem very sure of his abilities.”

Caleb shrugged. “Yeah, well, I actually spend time with the guy, so...”

Mann stiffened glared at him. “You have something to say to me?”

Caleb looked her in the eye. “No.” He said.

Mann snorted. “Humans.”

“Yep.” Caleb agreed, crossing his arms and leaning back against the exterior wall.

“You think I’m lacking as a mother.”

“I’ve seen better.”

“Don’t think because you’re close to my son I won’t hurt you, boy.”

“It ever occur to you that maybe Manny finds you lacking as a mother?”

Mann only glared at him.

“Like, I don’t know, maybe he’d pay more attention to you if he felt like you gave a damn. You know, like you cared about him. Like a mom.”

“Like a human, you mean.” Mann bared her teeth in a predator’s smile. “I am not human.”

“Yeah well he is!” Caleb shot back. “I don’t care if he’s got claws and wings and shit. It ain’t about that. It’s how he was brought up, it’s what’s real to him. And you can train him up like you, make him move like you and talk like you, but no matter how much he looks the part he’s never gonna _be_ you. You missed out on all that. Someone beat you to it and now Manny’s as human as me. You gotta live with that. So does he.”

Mann advanced on him a step, her claws glinting as her fingers flexed. She took another step, and Caleb found himself flattened against the wall with no memory of doing it. Another step, and Mann was close enough he could smell the blood on her breath.

She stared him down, eye to eye, and hissed through long, sharp teeth.

“It was not by choice.”

Caleb wasn’t aware of closing his eyes, but when he opened them again Mann was gone. Nothing but footprints.

** That went well. **

“Shut up, dude.” Caleb muttered, then he shook himself off and climbed back through the window to collapse on his bed.

“And Manny freaks out about seeing my folks.” He said to no one in particular.

He tried to relax enough to get some sleep, and was about to drift off maybe an hour later when his phone lit up and let out a short bass riff. Caleb picked it up and checked his texts.

_ Dude! She says I can come down and see you at the end of the week! How cool is that? _

Caleb smiled down at the screen and sent a quick reply.

_ Very cool, dude. I can’t wait. _

Several seconds passed, then,

_ Me neither. I’ll be there as soon as I can. I love you. _

Caleb looked across the room where Manny’s spare bass was leaning against the wall, and heard the memory of music in his head.

_ I love you too. _

After that, he slept.

**Author's Note:**

> Something About Manny was written in a frenzy of sleep-deprived creativity after about a week of stagnant attempts at re-writing. And that's because Something About Manny was written in August 2014 as a birthday gift for Manda Carney, the voice of Manny and Mann in Mrs. Frieda's. 
> 
> Now, Manda happens to be my favorite player on the site, so it was extremely important to me to get this one right. I guess I managed somehow because, while this is a fic I wrote in honor of Mrs. Frieda's, once they read it both Manda and Matt (voice of Caleb and Shawty in Mrs. Frieda's) declared it canon. 
> 
> So...I guess it's not technically a fic anymore? Whatever, it's in the collection and you might hear it performed on the podcast someday. On that day I may faint. 
> 
> Special thanks, therefore, to Manda Carney and Matt Campen for letting me play in their sandbox for a while. I'm glad you guys liked it.


End file.
